Cuomo, Andrew Mark

Cuomo, Andrew Mark kwōˈmō [key], 1957–, American politician, b. Queens, N.Y., grad. Fordham Univ. (1979), Albany Law School (1982). The son of Mario Cuomo, he was (1982) a key operative on his father's campaign staff and later a policy adviser to Gov. Cuomo. After founding (1986) a housing-for-the-homeless organization and directing (1990–93) New York City's Commission on the Homeless, he served as an assistant secretary (1993–1997) and as secretary (1997–2001) of the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration. Following an unsuccessful bid (2004) for New York's Democratic gubernatorial nomination, he was elected (2006) New York attorney general and earned a reputation as a tough reformer. Cuomo was elected governor of New York in 2010 and reelected in 2014 and 2018. During the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, Cuomo was initially applauded for his handling of the epidemic, but later questions about his handling of patients in nursing homes were raised. In late 2020-21, he was faced with a series of allegations of sexual misconduct and several local and national figures called on him to resign, but Cuomo stood his ground.

See his political memoir, All Things Possible (2014); biography by M. Shnayerson (2015).

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